A unified LAFC faces a tough showdown in Portland

If circumstances surrounding the Los Angeles Football Club’s trip to Portland on Sunday feel familiar, that’s because they are.

Heading into the team’s previous visit to the Pacific Northwest on July 21, the frustration that set in with middling results over the first two-and-a-half months of the season seemed behind them after LAFC had won three in a row and were situated in a Western Conference playoff spot.

Then, when Portland forward Felipe Mora headed in an improbable game winner in the 93rd minute, one of the worst defeats of the season knocked LAFC back on its heels.

The result was the first of eight consecutive winless contests for LAFC, including four consecutive defeats that sent the club tumbling toward the bottom of the Western Conference table while key injuries to Eddie Segura and Carlos Vela, and the ever-present transfer talk regarding Diego Rossi, hung over the locker room.

“That set us off on a stretch where we weren’t as consistent,” LAFC head coach Bob Bradley said Saturday. “We lost a bit of confidence. You know when you’re going through a season and at times you don’t have consistent lineups, if you lose a point on a given day, if all of a sudden you play well and make a mistake and a game slips away, that can eat away at confidence.”

For the Black & Gold, poor results didn’t cease until a surprising 4-0 victory against Sporting Kansas City on Sept. 3. Beating Real Salt Lake last weekend and Austin FC on Wednesday put LAFC on its second three-match winning streak of the season, and pushed Bradley’s side back into a postseason spot, one point behind Portland.

“I think we had countless meetings as a team, coaching staff and players included, in order for us to have conversations about where we need to be mentally and having the kind of attitude where we need to come together as a team,” South Korean defender Kim Moon-Hwan said. “Of course, winning helps. That changes the atmosphere and attitude of the players in the training grounds and the kind of conversations that we have.

“But given the results we’ve had and how we’ve prepared to get out of the streak of bad results, we’ve come together to rally behind and put ourselves in a position mentally together where we help each other and encourage each other to do our best. Right now, I definitely feel like our staff and players are committed to turning this around and getting the best results we can.”

With LAFC having earned 10 points in its last four matches, and with 30 points left to compete for in the regular season including Sunday, Moon’s Ecuadorian teammate, midfielder Jose Cifuentes, said LAFC “is much more united than we were before.”

LAFC (9-9-6, 33 points) will have to live up to those words at Providence Park against an in-form Timbers side that also has three wins and a draw in its past four contests. On Wednesday, Portland (10-10-4, 34 points) rallied with a man down to salvage a point at home against a tough Colorado team.

“You can see the group as a whole moving along in a good way,” Bradley said. “It’s always a tough game in Portland, a team that is on a good run, so to that end to win in Portland everyone has to be ready for a hard game.”

LAFC vs. PORTLAND

When: Sunday, 4:30 p.m.

Where: Providence Park, Portland, Oregon

TV: FS1, FOX Deportes (Spanish)

Radio: 710 AM, ESPN App, 980 AM (Spanish)